The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen shot at the convoy of Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman of Baghdad security operations, and wounded one passerby in the centre of Baghdad, Moussawi said.

Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Two policemen were wounded when gunmen in a speedy car threw a hand grenade at the Iraqi Islamic Party office in the centre of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, local police said.

Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Three Pakistani soldiers were killed on Saturday after a bomb planted on a roadside exploded in a northwestern tribal area, security officials said. The blast took place at Katasarai village in restive Kurram tribal district bordering Afghanistan where Pakistani army and paramilitary forces have launched an operation against Taliban militants. “Three security personnel including a lieutenant have embraced martyrdom and one other was wounded in an IED (improvised explosive device) blast,” a senior security official told AFP.

In Pakistan's northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan, at least 20 militants and a security personnel were killed and 25 soldiers wounded in a clash on Friday. The militants set off a roadside bomb near a Pakistani army convoy in Khanki area of Upper Orakzai close to the Afghan border. The bombing sparked the clash that killed one soldier and 20 militants, Wajid Khan, a local government official told.

#2: According to local authorities in eastern Afghanistan, at least eight militants including a senior militants commander were killed following a joint military operation in eastern Kunar province. Kunar provincial governor spokesman Wasifullah Wasifi said, the military operations were launched in Suki district on Thursday evening and was completed on Friday evening.

#3: NATO-led forces raided a house of a counternarcotics official in south-eastern Afghanistan, detaining the director and killing a woman, a statement said Saturday. Coalition force raided the house of a Dr Hafizullah (no first name provided), director of the counternarcotics department of Paktia province Saturday morning, detaining him along with his two sons, a statement of the provincial governor office said. The house was raided by NATO-led forces in Gardiz, the provincial capital of Paktia, at 1 am (2030 GMT Friday), it said. 'Hafizullah, along his two sons, have arrested by the combined forces.' The statement also said that a female member of the family was killed, while three other family members were wounded in the raid, conducted in Bala Da area of the city.

#4: Four armed insurgents were killed during operations by the police, Afghan National Army and coalition forces in Kabul, Kunduz, Kandahar, Helmand, and Maidan Wardak provinces in the past 24 hours, the interior ministry said in a statement.

“Iraqiya List officials as well as its parliamentary and ministerial bloc members in addition to leader Iyad Allawi convened, on Friday evening, in the residence of Iraqiya official Tarek Al Hashimi residence to discuss political developments in the country,” spokesman of Iraqiya List Haidar Al Mulla told Alsumarianews. “The meeting attendants resolved to suspend Iraqiya List MPs’ membership in the parliament starting Saturday,” he added.

“Participants also agreed upon calling political blocs to engage into dialogue in order to reach effective solutions regarding hard political crisis in the country,” Mulla revealed noting that parliamentary and ministerial bloc members of Iraqiya List including both deputies of Prime Minister and Vice Presidents handed their resignations to the list’s leaders.

“The way Prime Minister Maliki is running the government is the reason behind these resolutions,” Mulla argued. “Iraqiya List is determined to protect the political process from individualist policies and dictatorship methods taking over the political process,” he concluded.